9th-12th Grades Reading List

Peace Like a River
By Leif Enger
Enger brings us eleven-year-old Reuben Land, an asthmatic boy in the Midwest who has reason to believe in miracles. Along with his sister and father, Reuben finds himself on a cross-country search for his outlaw older brother who has been charged with murder.

Cat’s Cradle
By Kurt Vonnegut
An apocalyptic tale of this planet’s ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist, a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer, and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny.

The Bean Trees
By Barbara Kingsolver
It is the charming, engrossing tale of rural Kentucky native Taylor Greer, who only wants to get away from her roots and avoid getting pregnant. She succeeds, but inherits a 3-year-old native-American little girl named Turtle along the way, and together, from Oklahoma to Tucson, Arizona, half-Cherokee Taylor and her charge search for a new life in the West.

Parable of the Sower
By Octavia E. Butler
When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day.

The Annotated Sense and Sensibility
by Jane Austen
Filled with fascinating information about everything from the rules of inheritance that could leave a wealthy man’s daughters almost penniless to the fashionable cult of sensibility that Austen so brilliantly satirizes, David M. Shapard’s Annotated Sense and Sensibility is an entertaining and edifying delight.

Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley

Dracula
by Bram Stoker
When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries in his client’s castle.

The Annotated Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
Of course, one can enjoy the novel without knowing the precise definition of a gentleman, or what it signifies that a character drives a coach rather than a hack chaise, or the rules governing social interaction at a ball, but readers of The Annotated Pride and Prejudice will find that these kinds of details add immeasurably to understanding and enjoying the intricate psychological interplay of Austen’s immortal characters.

1984
by George Orwell
Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes.

Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
Pip, a poor orphan being raised by a cruel sister, does not have much in the way of great expectations—until he is inexplicably elevated to wealth by an anonymous benefactor.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
An intriguing combination of fantast thriller and moral allegory, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde depicts the gripping struggle of two opposing personalities — one essentially good, the other evil — for the soul of one man.

Ready Player One
by Ernest Cline
A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?
In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days.

The Hobbit
by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Martian
by Andy Weir

The Annotated Emma
by Jane Austen

The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde

Complete Tales & Poems Of Edgar Allan Po
by Edgar Allan Poe

The Things They Carried
by Tim O’Brien

The Annotated Persuasion
by Jane Austen

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
by Aimee Bender

The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
by Philip K. Dick